Scotland have drawn arch-rivals England and 2007 conquerers Argentina in the pool stages for the 2011 World Cup, to be held in New Zealand.

The Scots were ranked in the third batch of seeds, meaning they would face one side from the World’s top four and another from those placed 5-8.

Argentina, who knocked Scotland out of the competition in the quarter-finals last year, are currently ranked fourth in the world.

Scotland gained revenge on the Pumas by beating them on home-turf in Buenos Aries early this summer.

But the biggest game for the Scots will undoubtedly be the clash with the Auld-Enemy, England.

The English are currently only ranked seventh in the world, and have been massively inconsistent in the last five years.  However they tend to come good during World Cups, having made the 2007 final in defence of the crown they won in 2003.

Scotland will also face the top ranked side in Europe outside of the Six Nations, possibly Georgia or Romania, and another qualifier.

Elsewhere, current champions South Africa face Wales and Fiji, hosts New Zealand will meet France and Tonga, while Ireland square off against Australia and Italy.

Scotland coach Frank Hadden said: “It’s a good draw and one that gives Scotland every chance of maintaining our proud record of being one of only five countries to qualify for the quarter-final of every World Cup.
 
“The draw is the first piece of the jigsaw.  The second piece is the scheduling of games and I believe it is absolutely imperative that games are scheduled to allow players’ proper recovery and preparation time given the intensity of international matches.
 
“As far as our Pool B opponents are concerned I’m happy with the draw.  We haven’t played England in the World Cup since the 1991 semi-final, and we lost out at last year’s World Cup to Argentina in the quarter-final.
 
“It looks as if we’ve missed the Pacific Islands’ countries as they are pretty much playing on their home patch so that’s a bonus.”
 
Scotland captain Mike Blair said: “I’m excited by the draw.  In England and Argentina we have two extremely tough sides in our pool who have a very proud record in the tournament.  It will take a big effort from us but that’s what we will be setting our minds on.”